Monday, March 12, 2012

These cookies have two very special components that make perfect for St Patrick's. First is the cake part which is made with Guinness, molasses and spices. The second is the decorated part in which the idea comes from the brain of Darla at Bakingdom.com.

This is my first time at using fondant, so I still do need some more practice. I was hoping that I could use disco dust on the border of the fondant, but I ran out of room. Hopefully with more practice I will be at ease and be able to make my cookies more eye catching in the future.

Regarding the taste of the cookies, they are great without any topping. Not so pretty, but very tasty. I did leave a few dozen plain to enjoy with coffee or tea. The dough is a good base and can be personalized to your own tastes (ie sandwich cookies, drizzled with chocolate, etc)

In the listing below, I have included the original recipe along with the Bailey's glaze recipe. Also, you will find the link to Darla's specific post which is an excellent tutorial on how to use regular rubber stamps and fondant to make some festive looking cookies.

This particular recipe does yield quite a number of cookies, depending how big or small you want to make them. It was published with the thought that gingerbread men would be made, so it states that it makes 20 six inch cookies. Also, using the Guinness requires you to start the night before on making these.

Put Guinness in a small bowl and cover with a paper towel. Let sit overnight in a cool place.

The next morning, sift together the flour, baking powder and all 4 spices and set aside. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then take the bowl of Guiness and stir in the molasses. Once blended, add it to the butter/sugar mixture and beat for 30 seconds. Then beat in the egg until everything is blended.

Beat 1/3 of the sifted mixture into the batter. Add another 1/3 and beat until no dry streaks remain. Then knead in the last 1/3 of the sifted ingredients until all is blended. Cover and chill for one hour.

While chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Once chill time is complete, take and roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Dough should be rolled to an 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out dough with the cookie cutters of your choice. I used a square biscuit cutter. Transfer cut outs to cookie sheet, spacing about one inch apart. Place in oven and bake until done. Baking time is about 12-15 minutes. Cookies are done when they are firm to the touch. Let cool before icing or frosting.

Ingredients/Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tbs Baileys Irish Cream

Place irish cream in a bowl and sift powdered sugar into the bowl. Mix until no dry streaks remain. Then lightly ice cookies with the glaze.

Decorated Stamp Fondant
The things I found out when trying to complete the process:
-The cookie is thin, so the fondant needs to be thin.
-the less handling of the fondant the less risk of fingerprints and tearing.
-I used a bench scraper to move the fondant squares
-the less detailed the stamp the better
-finding that "perfect" size as well as less detail of a stamp is not very easy
So without further delay, here is the link to Darla's tutorial: Stamped Halloween Cookies